Past Research

My early research was on issues of language and representation in the novels of Gustave Flaubert. I then worked extensively on Roland Barthes, publishing a monograph on Barthes as a utopian writer as well as editing two collections of essays on his work. I have also published work on other nineteenth-century French authors, and on narrative and feminist theory. From around 2000 I have worked intensively on Balzac, and published a monograph (2007) on issues of realism and representation in his artist stories. In 2013, I returned to research on Roland Barthes and I was especially active in 2015, the centenary of his birth which led to academic conferences throughout the world and to special issues of journals devoted to his work.

Future Research

I shall continue to publish on Barthes, as well as the gendering of celibacy, marriage and homosexuality in Balzac's novels.